


Thin Paint

by the_nerd_word



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Flash Fic, Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:57:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerd_word/pseuds/the_nerd_word
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strangers talk over coffee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thin Paint

“You haven’t been here in a while,” she said to the stranger, and the bustle of the coffee house was sweet on her breath.

“I’ve been distracted lately,” he replied, taking his customary seat in the corner.

The woman’s acknowledgement was given through a nod, and she wrapped her lips around a mug whose inside was sugary-sick with “a decaf three-pump caramel latte, please.”  When she put the drink down, her attention turned to the morning paper’s crossword puzzle.

He watched her fill square little stomachs with tentative letters before his interest grew stale and he looked away.

The coffee house was divided into two parts by a large, open doorway; the second part, furthest away from the entrance and register, was an add-on to accommodate more seating. He and the woman at the table next to him sat in the space directly between the two rooms. A short jut of wall, leftover from the original design, provided the comfort of a small corner. He normally took advantage of the corner to people-watch, but the patrons this morning were all regulars. Unoriginality had a caffeinated body.

The espresso machine at the counter suddenly hissed, and he winced as if the sound were directed toward him.

“-me,” he mumbled abruptly under the sound.

“What?” the woman asked, looking up with only an ounce of curiosity.

He waited for the espresso machine to quit throwing up black juice. “My wife is cheating on me.”

She froze, caught off guard. The crossword puzzle remained half-empty. “That’s-“

“It’s probably my fault, a little. I’m not around as much, I’ve gained some weight. I’m certainly not getting any younger. We used to go out. We’d go for walks in the morning or have dinner at that old catfish place downtown. Now we just sit around in the house and notice how the paint’s getting thin. We’ve always been in that house. Never moved like we planned. I wonder if he’s got money. If he takes her to nice places and orders her nice drinks.”

She looked like she felt sorry for him. She shook her head and asked, “Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but he cut her off. “It hurts, you know? I’m not going to lie. It hurts. Men aren’t supposed to cry. Well, I cried like a baby when I found out. Do you know how humiliating that was? To stand in that lobby and see her take his hand and kiss him, kiss him like she hasn’t kissed me in years, and then walk to that elevator. Slowest walk I’ve ever seen in my life, smallest backs. And then that elevator door closed, and I started crying, crying in front of everybody. I got out of there.”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I’ll do now. Go on, I suppose. It’s not like things’ll really change. I mean, well, I’ve been living like this for a while, so.”

The woman couldn’t bring herself to look at him anymore. Her voice quavered when she said, “I’m so sorry, Dave.”

He stood, taking time to button up his jacket and straighten the chair. The espresso machine began to hiss again. “I’ll see you at home, Cindy.”

 

 


End file.
